This was creepy!

Last night I headed over to our rental house to do some cleaning, the last thing left to do there.  I pulled into the driveway, gathered my things, and headed in the house.  Just a reminder, our rental house is pretty secluded.  There are only three houses on the street, one right next door and the other up the dirt road a ways.  It is a rural area. If you will remember we had lots of visitors of the critter variety: coyotes, bears, deer, wild turkey and grouse, bunnies, and things like that. Immediately after entering the house, I noticed that it smelled like smoke.  I sat my things on the counter and looked around.  Instantly, I noticed a fire going in the fireplace!  MERCY ME!  This is a vacant house in the middle of nowhere.  There was also a pile of sticks piled by the fireplace. I didn't need an invitation to hang around any longer.  I grabbed my things, and all but ran back to the van, locked the van doors, drove away, and called Bill- my fearless night in shinning armor. 

Bill calmly assured me that we would just call our landlord when I got home. While I ran a few more errands, Bill decided to call the local police too.  They went to investigate and discovered that it was only our property manager warming up the house so he could paint and things like that. He had left to run some errands himself, and so we never saw each other.  He was pretty freaked out when the police showed up!  Whoops!

Now, in hindsight, the story is a bit funny. It wasn't so funny last night, showing up to an empty house, off the beaten path, with all the signs of only heaven knows who camping there.  WOE!  That is an experience that I don't ever care to repeat!